Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/59

Between the conservatory and the greenhouse there is about the same difference as between a dinner and a luncheon. It is impossible to draw a hard-and-fast line between them, and yet they differ in plan and purpose very decidedly, The greenhouse is intended principally for production, and is more or less of a storehouse. The conservatory is intended for enjoyment and display. Some very humble and, in some cases, useless glass structures are styled “conservatories,” but the term applies properly to an edifice of sufficient size to accommodate camellias and orange trees, and the free movement of full-grown persons attired in a manner which would render it inconvenient for them to come in contact with damp flower-pots. A conservatory should be more or less of a garden under glass, and adapted for frequent resort and agreeable assemblage at all seasons, and especially at times of festivity. Hence, in designing a structure of this class, we must not adhere strictly to the advice given in the first chapter of this work, but endeavour to combine elegance, head room, and airiness, with conditions suitable for plant life. It must be confessed that the low roofs, which suit the majority of plants so well, are undignified, and therefore we must abandon that rule in the case of a conservatory. But in doing so, it will be well to bear in mind that not one of our plants will alter its nature to suit our fancies and fashions, and therefore there must be a limit to every extension of the primitive idea of a plant-house, for above all things we are bound to secure for the vegetation the house is to shelter conditions favorable to its prosperity. Now, the apparent difficulty may be disposed of by remembering that abundance of light and a constantly moving atmosphere are the two chief requisites to be provided for in the construction of a plant-house, no matter whether we call it a stove, a greenhouse, or a conservatory. Darkness, stagnant air, and keen draughts, are the principal enemies of plants that are shut up in houses, and it is compatible with the highest elegance of design, and the most artistic finish of detail, to ensure the best possible protection for them against these destructive agencies. As we must have aerial as well as lateral space in a conservatory, so, to make the contents worthy of the edifice, we must employ plants of large growth, and a certain number of them should aspire towards the roof, to carry the eye upward and fill the space above that would, if unoccupied, make an unpleasant impression, however richly